Reid and McConnell fought bitterly over the matter on the Senate floor Thursday.

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Reid is contemplating a change that would allow for a simple majority vote, rather than a 60-vote threshold, to approve executive and judicial branch nominees that Democrats argue Republicans are needlessly blocking.

Republicans say if Reid pursues the nuclear option that no other legislation will pass the Senate until after the next election, when they are vowing to campaign against the Democrats’ “tyranny of the majority.”